The present invention relates to a cable harness plug for establishing a disconnectable electric plug-and-socket connection with another plug part, including a housing part in which electric contact elements are arranged, and a cover to protect the contact elements, as well as a securing device for securing a cable harness leading to the contact elements on the cable harness plug, the cable harness being arranged inside a cable protection device provided on the cable harness plug.
Disconnectable plug-and-socket connections are known in a variety of versions. As a rule, they include a first plug part, e.g., a cable harness plug, and another plug part, e.g., a male connector. The cable harness plug itself includes a contact carrier in the form of a housing part in which the electric contact elements are arranged and a cover to protect the contact elements from dirt, water or the like or unintentional contact. The cover can be latched on the contact carrier. To prevent unintentional opening of the cover and thus detachment from the contact carrier, the cover can be secured by using a securing device, e.g., by a retaining strap.
Furthermore, there are known cable protection devices which are used to guide the cable harness to the contact elements and to protect the cable harness from mechanical stresses in the transitional area from support sleeves, sheathing or the like to the plug part. They are usually composed of two interlocking half-shells with the cable harness inside. The half-shells are usually connected in one piece to the plug part.
One disadvantage of the type mentioned above of cable harness plugs is that it does not permit a vibration-proof arrangement of the cable harness directly on the cable harness plug to protect it from mechanical damage at the transition from the cable protection device to the cable harness plug.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to design a cable harness plug of the type mentioned above such that the disadvantages of the related art are avoided.
This object is achieved by the fact that the securing device is composed of a retaining strap which forms one piece with the cable protection device.
One important advantage of the present invention is that a cable harness plug has been created that provides all the elements for assembly of a cable harness on the contact carrier in a simple manner. Therefore, it is no longer necessary to keep an inventory of securing devices.
The cable protection device is preferably made of a grooved tube formed from two half-shells, a first half-shell being arranged on the cover and the other half-shell being arranged on the housing part of the cable harness plug. Therefore, there is a direct connection between the housing part of the cable harness plug and the cable protection device, so that this transition is protected from mechanical damage.
Furthermore, the securing device is designed in the form of a retaining strap which is arranged on the inside of the first half-shell and can be guided and secured through a side opening in the cable protection device around the cable harness and through the opening. The latching device for the retaining strap is preferably arranged on the outside of the cover.
As an alternative, the retaining strap can be arranged on the other half-shell with the same function.
An alternative securing device is designed such that the retaining strap is arranged on the outside of the first half-shell, can be guided around the other half-shell and can also be secured on the first half-shell.
As an alternative, the retaining strap may also be arranged on the other half-shell with the same function.
In the two embodiments mentioned last, the retaining strap in its first function is used to secure the two half-shells relative to one another and to prevent any inadvertent opening of the two half-shells due to vibration.
The other function of the retaining strap is to secure the cable harness in the cable protection device. Therefore, a holding device for the cable harness is provided inside the cable protection device and is designed so that the cable harness is secured by joining the two half-shells in the area of the holding device. The two half-shells preferably have two opposing curvatures arranged with a distance between them. When the half-shells are closed, this causes the cable harness to be secured in a fixed position. To increase this friction-locking effect, the securing device in the form of the retaining strap provided on one of the two half-shells is also preferably accommodated in this area.
A preferred variant of the embodiment mentioned last has in the first half-shell a recess into which the retaining strap provided on the other half-shell engages, so that a shorter retaining strap can be used.
To guarantee that the cable harness will be adequately secured, experiments have shown that the width of the holding device corresponds to the inside distance between the two legs of the first half-shell.
Furthermore, depending on the gauge of the cable harness, additional latching arrangements may also be provided in the embodiments mentioned above for securing the first half-shell on the other half-shell.